Figure 1.

The choice of cells, media, and culture substrata markedly influences the phenotype and functional relevance of organotypic liver models. Important points that should be considered for model design are listed. Each newly established model should closely mimic the molecular phenotype and function of human liver tissue. Furthermore, cellular phenotypes should be stable over the course of multiple weeks in culture and assays should be reproducible, i.e., experiments using cells from the same donor should have low technical variability. Further ideal organotypic liver models should be sufficiently accessible, allowing time course measurements and the sampling of various end points, and should be compatible with high-throughput screening (HTS).